FIFTH NATIONAI, CONSERVATION CONGRESS 349 



Absolute retrogression will follow if this margin is reduced or destroyed. Opera- 

 tion must continue, to pay investment costs, but under lower standards, at 

 ultimate public sacrifice. This tendency is conceded by all foresters. A lowering 

 of lumber prices, or at least of log prices, always results in a larger cut to get 

 high-grade material and the leaving in the woods of a larger proportion of low- 

 grade material that cannot be taken out at a profit. 



5. Finally, the lumber industry now suffers keenly from over-production 

 forced by over-capitalization and necessity of meeting bonding and other charges. 

 To further glut an unwilling market by creating both more lumber and more 

 plants to keep up is to risk a reaction, injuring instead of helping the public. All 

 but the strongest will go out of business, leaving it harder to sell government 

 timber than ever, leaving local industries stranded, wiping out the small man 

 whom it is sought to help, and leaving the few strong survivors in a strategic 

 position to exert monopolistic control. While the process could be repeated in 

 time, so this control would not be permanent, it is better to exercise a steady 

 hand throughout than to alternate extremes. 



Every one of these five arguments is sound in a measure, yet subject to 

 exceptions. That they would prove true to a considerable degree is more than 

 prSbable, but the exact degree would depend upon many future conditions im- 

 possible to forecast. It would probably fluctuate. One thing at least is certain, 

 that since the bulk of the national forest timber is comparatively remote, its 

 early exploitation at any price must be by large operators able to finance rail- 

 road building on a considerable scale. The day of the small man has not arrived 

 except in comparatively few localities. It is in the future when transportation 

 has pushed back further. While numerically most of the 6,000 yearly sales are 

 to small men now, the amount of timber involved is comparatively insignificant. 

 On the other hand, there is no logical objection to large operations, merely as 

 such, if they are otherwise desirable. If timber can be sold without ill effect, 

 the larger the sale the more profitable to the government, and the greater the 

 purchaser's responsibility the surer his contract is to be fulfilled. 



To sum up, it is not believed advisable to force the industry into risks of 

 instability by any radical departure to increase it. On the other hand, any 

 normal steady demand might be taken advantage of more effectively by a some- 

 what more adaptable and responsive system than now exists. In its attempt 

 to protect the government, the present system of fixing price and contract terms 

 is complicated and different from ordinary business procedure. Increasing trans- 

 portation facilities will continually lessen the necessity of this and a more easily 

 understood and less one-sided system will give sufficient safety and be more 

 attractive to inexperienced purchasers. 



THE PRODUCTION OF MATERIAL 



MAXIMUM forest production is secured by replacing mature and slow- 

 growing trees with young stock. There is also waste in deteriora- 

 tion by death and decay. Were production and consumption fairly 

 balanced, forestry would indicate utilization at that stage of maturity which pro- 

 duces the maximum combination of quality and quantity for the period involved. 



